Brazilians have protested in several cities against President Dilma Rousseff after she named her predecessor, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, chief of staff.
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Critics have called Silva’s appointment a bold-faced attempt to help him avoid possible detention in a sprawling investigation into corruption at the state-run Petrobras oil company, as Cabinet members can not face criminal charges unless they are approved by the Supreme Court.
Paulo Cicero, 55, carrys a cross past the Planalto presidential palace, in an act of protest against the government of Brazil ™s President Dilma Rousseff, in Brasilia, Brazil, Wednesday, March 16, 2016.
Rousseff, president of Brazil since 2011, served as the chair of the board of directors of Petrobras from 2003 to 2010-at the same time as she served in the cabinet of Lula da Silva, first as minister of mines and then as his chief-of staff.
She said his appointment would not mean he was above investigation as he could be tried by the Supreme Court. This rebound has caused an uproar in Congress and the Senate, where the furious opposition MPs shouted his fist “Resign! It is going to be a huge boost for my government”, she said.
Ms Rousseff has denied she is trying to protect Mr Lula, insisting she needs his help to pull her government out of crisis.
Rousseff said Lula was appointed for his experience and had a history of championing fiscal stability and combating inflation. The president’s office responded by announcing that “judicial and administrative measures” would be taken to “repair the flagrant violation of the law and the constitution committed” by judge Moro, but gave no specifics. Prosecutors investigating corruption at the state oil company, Petrobras, last week charged him with fraud and money laundering.
By joining his successor Dilma Rousseff’s cabinet in a reshuffle, Lula da Silva appeared to have won himself legal immunity in a corruption investigation.
Judge Sergio Moro, who is overseeing the graft probe, said in a court filing released on Wednesday that the taped telephone conversations did not provide proof that Lula and Rousseff carried out plans to interfere with his investigation.
BRASILIA, March 17 Brazil’s lower house of Congress launched impeachment proceedings against President Dilma Rousseff on Thursday by approving a committee of 65 members that will study whether there are grounds to remove her for manipulating government accounts.
Lula was president of Brazil during the country’s economic miracle days.
Earlier this month, Brazilian police raided Lula’s home and briefly took him in for questioning. The Avenue Paulista in Sao Paulo, Brazil’s largest city and economic hub, was also blocked off.
But the opposition Brazilian Social Democracy Party, or PSDB, says it plans to bolster its impeachment drive by including allegations that the presidents successful 2014 re-election campaign was partially funded with bribe money skimmed off of inflated Petrobras contracts.
On Sunday, an estimated 3 million people turned out for anti-government demonstrations nationwide.
As a government minister, Lula can only be trailed under the country’s Supreme Court.
Both Rousseff and Silva have repeatedly denied any wrongdoing, and the most of those mentioned in the plea deal have discredited the allegations.
Veja reported, without saying how it obtained the information, that former Chief Executive Otavio Azevedo confessed that a bribery scheme already documented at Petrobras was standard operating practice for spending throughout the government.
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At the swearing-in ceremony Thursday, Rousseff introduced Lula da Silva as her “dearest colleague” and “a great political leader” with the “incomparable capacity to look in the eyes of our people and to understand these people and want the best for these people”.
